COURSE OUTLINE

ACCT 310
Financial Statement Analysis

Semester Two, 2023

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This course outline contains information specific to this paper. For more general information
common to your papers, please refer to the COMMERCE_UG_2018: Commerce Undergraduate
Students site on Blackboard.

Paper Description and Aims

This course describes the analysis of financial statements and company valuation. Financial statement
analysis is the application of analytical tools, technology and techniques to general-purpose financial
statements and related data to derive estimates and inferences useful in business analysis. Financial
statement analysis comprise of accounting analysis, financial analysis and valuation.

Pre-requisites: (i) ACCT211, (ii) either ACFI201, or ACCT233, and (iii) 54 further 200- level
credit points.

Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Use S&P Capital IQ database for financial statement analysis purpose
2. Identify and apply the tools of financial statement analysis, including appropriate technology
3. Integrate and apply finance and accounting concepts for valuation analysis, including
appropriate technology
2. Evaluate the impact of financial reporting choices on the quality of accounting information
including reported earnings
4. Apply a set of diagnostics to assess the quality of the accounting in financial statements
5. Work effectively in a team environment

Teaching Staff
Paper Coordinator and Lecturer
Name: Dr Pallab Biswas (PB)
Office: Business School, Level 4, Room 418
Email: Pallab.biswas@otago.ac.nz
Office Hours: Monday 12pm - 2pm, Thursday 12pm -1pm

Pallab Biswas will lead the seminars during the first half of the semester. Ms Arung Mayapada
(arunggihna.mayapada@postgrad.otago.ac.nz), Ms Junxiu Lyu (junxiu.lyu@postgrad.otago.ac.nz)
and Mr. Abrar Hussain (abrar.hussain@postgrad.otago.ac.nz) will lead all computer workshops.

You should contact the Course Coordinator with any administrative enquiries about the paper.
Course contents can be discussed in class (lecturers and seminars), during office hours with the
relevant lecturer.

Class Representatives
Class representatives are an important means of communication between students and staff.
Contact details for your student class representatives can be found on the Blackboard page for this
paper.

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 Course Delivery
Lecture Day/Time: Monday 10.00 a.m. – 11.50 a.m. Room: ARCH2

Seminars and Workshop/Time:

Your seminar and workshop streams are:

Session Seminar Seminars Workshop Workshops
stream Wednesdays Stream Thursdays
10.00 – 10.50 1 CASTC 10.00 – 10.50 OBS118
11.00 – 11.50 2 CASTC 11.00 – 11.50 OBS118
14.00 – 14.50 3 OBSLG04 14.00 – 14.50 OBS118
15.00 – 15.50 4 OBSLG04 15.00 – 15.50 OBS118
– – – 16.00 – 16.50 OBS118

Note: Use the campus map link to find the location of your lecture, computer lab and tutorial:
https://www.otago.ac.nz/maps/

Every week students must attend one 2-hour lecture, one 50-minute seminar (Wednesdays) and one
50-minute workshop (Thursdays).

You will be allocated to a seminar and workshop and this will be available in eVision. Seminars begin
in week TWO while Workshop will commence in week ONE. Times and locations will be posted on
Blackboard during the first week of lectures.

Lectures present the key conceptual material. Lectures are supported by readings. It
is to your
benefit that you read the chapters assigned BEFORE each lecture and you
should prepare short notes on them. The lecturers will bring the important issues to your
attention, and add other information that may not be gleaned from the weekly readings. During the
course, additional examples may be presented that are relevant to the completion of the workshops.
Lecture slides and/or notes will be available on Blackboard. These are not substitutes for the lecture.
Many students find it beneficial to take print-outs of the lecture slides and/or notes to the lecture and to
annotate them with comments, examples, etc. These will generally be available before the lecture.

Seminars are interactive, collaborative sessions in which students attempt to cement concepts
presented at lectures with their peers in a supportive environment. Seminar questions will be
available on Blackboard on every Friday before the seminar week so that students can prepare for the
exercises before seminars. In every seminar, the questions will be discussed before a consensus
opinion is presented to all seminar participants. Your need to prepare for seminars before
attending them and need to submit your seminar work during the seminar.

Workshops will be held in computer labs every week beginning in week ONE until the end of
semester except in Week 8, and 13 when there will no workshop. Using Capital IQ and Microsoft Excel,
here students work on problems related to the lecture materials. Please read the workshop
questions before attending the workshops.

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 Course Learning Resources
All the reading materials are available on the Blackboard. Please download the reading materials
from the “Reading Materials” section under Course Documents.

Blackboard
https://blackboard.otago.ac.nz/ provides you with access to course materials, class notices, and
resources. Blackboard is used to email the whole class so it is important that you check your student
email and Blackboard regularly.

Further information about student support, learning support and information, academic integrity and
other University resources for students is available on the COMMERCE_UG_2017: Commerce
Undergraduate Students site on Blackboard.

Student Webmail
We will use your student email account to email you information relevant to your programme. To
forward your University email address to an email address that you use regularly:
1. Log into your Student Mail account (http://www.otago.ac.nz/smlanding/) using your
student username and password.
2. Click the Cog button (top right corner).
3. Click on Mail under Your App Settings.
4. Under Accounts on left hand side, select Forwarding.
5. Under the Forwarding heading, type in the email address you want your email to be forwarded
to. You can also choose to have a copy of these emails kept on your StudentMail account, so
please check the box if you would like this.
6. Click the Save button.

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 Assessment
All important assessment information such as due dates and times, content, guidelines and so on will
be discussed at lectures and, where appropriate, detailed on Blackboard. Students are responsible for
ensuring that they are aware of this information, keeping track of their own progress, and catching up
on any missed classes.

There are four assessments for this course.

1. Weekly Seminars: 10% of overall grade

There are 11 seminars throughout the semester (Weeks 2 -13). There will be NO seminar in Weeks
one and seven. Seminars will be directly related to lectures in the current and previous week. The
best ten of these seminar exercises will count for the final grade.

Students need to bring and submit assignments based on seminar questions during each
seminar.

Marks will be given for completion of the seminar assignments as follows:

0 marks: no attempt at the work has been made

½ mark: some of the work has been completed
1 mark: a good, honest, attempt has been made at all of the required work
NB: It is not about the work being correct but rather you have really had a good attempt at the
work.

If you cannot make it to your seminar for any reason, you will get a zero for the day, no exceptions.

2. Weekly Workshops: 20% of overall grade

There are 10 workshops throughout the semester starting Week 1. There will be NO workshop on
7 September, and 12 October.

During the semester, students will be required to submit four workshop related assignments.
Due date of the workshop assignments and the % of final grade is as follows:

Assignment Due Date (before 5 pm) % of final

Email address for Submission
Number grade
1 Monday, 24-July-2023 5%
2 Monday, 14-Aug-2023 7% ACCT310.OTAGO@GMAIL.COM
3 Monday, 25-Sep-2023 4%
4 Monday, 9-Oct-2023 4%

If you do not attend the workshops, it will be difficult for you to complete the workshop
assignments. Please note the workshops are not recorded.

3. Lab test: 10% of overall grade

There will be a lab test to assess the skills learnt in the workshops from Week 1 to Week 6, inclusive.
Lab test will take place on 24 August 2023 (TBC).

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4. Final exam: 60% of overall grade
A written comprehensive final exam will be held at the end of the semester. The date, time and
venue will be notified as soon as they become available. All course materials (Weeks 1 – 13) is
examinable.
You are required to bring along a university approved calculator to the final exam.

No. Assessment Due Date % of final Requirement

grade to pass paper
1 Seminar Weekly 10%
2 Workshop Monday 24 July 20%
Assignment Monday 14 August
Monday 25 September
Monday 9 October
3 Lab test 24 August (TBC) 10%
4 Final Exam Exam Period 60% 50%
Total 100%

Course Requirements
Students should obtain mark of at least 50% in Final Exam to pass this assessment.

Assignment Submission Procedure

• Weekly seminar work must be submitted in hard copy during the weekly seminar.
• Computer workshop assignments must be emailed to ACCT310.OTAGO@GMAIL.COM

Late Assignments
Late seminar work and workshop assignments are not allowed.

Referencing Style and Style Guide

For this paper the referencing style is (e.g. Harvard, Chicago, APA, etc). Here is a link to the style
guide: (insert link) Style guides are also available on the University Library website:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/quicklinks/citation/index.html

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 Learning Outcomes

Seminar

Workshops

Lab Test

Final Exam

Total
Learning Outcome

Integrate and apply finance and accounting

concepts for valuation analysis, including X X X X
appropriate technology
Identify and apply the tools of financial statement
X X X X
analysis, including appropriate technology
Evaluate the impact of financial reporting choices
on the quality of accounting information including X X X X
reported earnings
Apply a set of diagnostics to assess the quality of
X X X
the accounting in financial statements
Work effectively in a team environment X X
Total 10% 20% 10% 60% 100%

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 Course Calendar
Week Seminar Topic Workshop
Week Beginning Pre Reading Lecture Staff [Wednesday] [Thursday]
Introduction to the
Material on course; Financial
1 10-Jul-23 PB No Seminar Workshop 1
Blackboard Statement Analysis
Techniques
Material on Financial Statement
2 17-Jul-23 PB Week 1 Workshop 2
Blackboard Analysis Techniques
Material on Financial Statement
3 24-Jul-23 PB Week 2 Workshop 3
Blackboard Analysis Techniques
Material on Financial Reporting
4 31-Jul-23 PB Weeks 1-3 Workshop 4
Blackboard Quality I
Material on Financial Reporting
5 7-Aug-23 PB Week 4 Workshop 5
Blackboard Quality II
Material on Financial Reporting
6 14-Aug-23 PB Weeks 5 & 6 Workshop 6
Blackboard Quality III
Material on Lab Test
7 21-Aug-23 Earnings Per Share No Seminar
Blackboard 24/08 (TBC)
Mid Semester Break 28 August – 1 September
Material on No
8 4-Sep-23 Earnings Per Share PB Week 7
Blackboard Workshop
Material on Valuation I-
9 11-Sep-23 PB Weeks 8 & 9 Workshop 7
Blackboard Forecasting
Material on
10 18-Sep-23 Valuation II- DCF PB Week 9 Workshop 8
Blackboard
Material on Valuation II – Free
11 25-Sep-23 PB Week 10 Workshop 9
Blackboard Cash Flow
Materials on Valuation III –
12 2-Oct-23 PB Week 11 Workshop 10
Blackboard Residual Income
No
13 9-Oct-23 Revision Revision PB Week 12
Workshop

Lectures end Friday 13 October 2023

University Exam Period 18 October - 11 November 2023

Disclaimer
While every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this document is accurate, it
is subject to change. Changes will be notified in class and via Blackboard. Students are encouraged
to check Blackboard regularly. It is the student’s responsibility to be informed.